Teacher as a benevolent dictator - Promoting a culture of democratic dialogic education in a conventional university

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by hdkawk

This essay critically examines why a professor may restrict undergraduate students’ sovereignty over educational decision-making to create opportunities for democratic dialogic culture within a conventional university course. It contrasts the conditions required by democracy and dialogue—voluntary participation, shared reasoning, and collective decision autonomy—with the reality that institutional socialization often conflicts with such sovereignty. The article introduces the concept of the “teacher as a benevolent dictator,” analyzing its forms, risks, and benefits.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages16

Reading Time40 min

AccessFree to download

Setting a problem

Democratic decision-making opportunities

Pedagogical regimes and student choices

Collective deliberation on classroom organization

Methods for making collective decisions

ISSN: 2325-3290 (online) Teacher as a benevolent dictator: Promoting a culture of democratic dialogic education in a conventional university Eugene Matusov University of Delaware, USA Abstract This essay1 provides a grounded critical discussion of why a professor might limit their undergraduate students’sovereignty of educational decision-making to promote an opportunity for a democratic dialogic culture in the class situated in a conventional university. On the one hand, both democracy and dialogue require voluntary participation by the students in their education and dialogue and their sovereignty over collective decision-making and educational reasoning. On the other hand, this participation is based on the students’ socialization in a special culture which might often be at odds with their sovereignty. It is difficult for many students to freely choose democracy and dialogue in education when they are embedded in a conventional educational institution based on Kantian educational paternalism and foisted education. Also, the students are often culturally unfamiliar with such concepts as “democracy,” “dialogue,”and “self-education,” let alone their practical implications. To address these contradictions, I introduce the notion of the“teacher as a benevolent dictator.” I discuss, problematize, and analyze the forms of this benevolent dictatorship, its potential pitfalls, and promises. Eugene Matusov is a Professor of Education at the University of Delaware. He studied developmental psychology with Soviet researchers working in the Vygotskian paradigm and worked as a schoolteacher before immigrating to the United States. He uses sociocultural and Bakhtinian dialogic approaches to education. His current research and practice focus is on Democratic Dialogic Education. His recent books are: Matusov, E. (2020), "Envisioning education in a post-work leisure-based society: A dialogic perspective." Matusov, E. , Marjanovic-Shane, A. , & Gradovski, M. (2019), "Dialogic pedagogy and polyphonic research art: Bakhtin by and for educators." Acknowledgment I would like to thank Ana Marjanovic-Shane, Kevin Curry-Knight, Peter Gray, Rebecca English, Bob Hampel, and an anonymous reviewer of the DPJ for discussions of, critical feedback on, and helpful suggestions for this essay. I am also thankful to Jim Rietmulder, who was the first person to call me “a benevolent dictator” while reflecting on my innovative democratic dialogic teaching practice. ÏÏÒ Setting a problem To introduce the problem of a teacher as a benevolent dictator in democratic dialogic education, let me start with the following event that occurred in the fall of 2018 semester in one of my undergraduate 1 A shortened version of this paper was published in Matusov (2021c) Dialogic Pedagogy: An International DOI: 10.5195/dpj.2023.331 | Vol. 1 Online 1 No. 2 Journal | [http://dpj.pitt.edu](http://dpj.pitt.edu)[ ](http://dpj.pitt.edu)(2023) A245 Promoting a culture of democratic dialogic education in a conventional university Eugene Matusov classes. I tried to run all my classes democratically by engaging my students in decision-making about their own education through dialogue as much as possible. One of these opportunities for decision-making was to let the class choose what to study: at the end of each session, the students decided what topic to study next from a list of curricular topics (“The Curricular Map”) that we created together (similar to what was described by Duberman, 1969) . A student would propose a topic from the Curricular Map and then try to convince their peers to choose it (among other topics proposed by other students) . Then the students usually voted on all proposed topics to select the topic for the next class meeting. A second opportunity for decision-making concerned the “pedagogical regime” (Matusov & Marjanovic-Shane, 2017) the students would prefer for themselves. The students have a choice of four pedagogica

FAQs

What tension does the essay address regarding democratic dialogic education?

The essay contrasts the ideal of student voluntary participation and educational sovereignty with the institutional socialization found in conventional universities, which can be incompatible with those ideals.

What does “the teacher as a benevolent dictator” refer to?

It refers to limiting students’ decision-making sovereignty in order to cultivate a democratic dialogic culture, while analyzing the forms, pitfalls, and promises of such benevolent authority.

What decision-making opportunities are described in the author’s undergraduate classes?

Students help decide what to study using a shared “Curricular Map,” choose among provided “pedagogical regimes,” bring emerging classroom issues into collective deliberation, and select how collective decisions are made.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by hdkawk